VIDEO: Kevin Keatts Talks After NC State’s 97-64 Victory Over Loyola Maryland

NC State improved to 12-1 after their 97-64 victory over Loyola Maryland to close out the non-conference slate. Wolfpack head coach Kevin Keatts spoke with the media in his postgame press conference afterwards. The video of what he had to say to the media afterwards is ABOVE, and a bulleted breakdown is BELOW.

• I’m excited about our team. I just told the team that I thought we did a tremendous job in non-conference play.
• If you had told me that we would be 12-1, I would’ve taken it. Obviously, we had our chances to be 13-0.
• This team has grown in a lot of areas and I’m proud of them, because we‘ve gotten better. We have been able to develop our depth Some guys have gotten some playing time lately that I think will really help us when we get into ACC play.
• I look at the season in thirds
  • 1st third of the season is the non-conference
  • ACC play is the second
  • Postseason is the third
• I’m happy with where we are. Obviously, we have to get better, because the competition will continue to get better as we move forward.
• I am proud of the way that these guys have taken care of business…how professional they’ve been…and how hard they’ve worked throughout the non-conference games. I am excited about it and we are ready for the ACC.
• The last three games we’ve turned the ball over too much, which is very uncharacteristic of us. Need to get back to taking care of the basketball. When you look at it, we are doing a great job passing the ball and having high assists games.
• We had great defense with 13 blocks, which is the second-most blocks ever in PNC Arena. We were sharing the ball with 25 assists tonight.
  • Yet, we are starting to turn the ball over, which I don’t like.
• What I like about our team is the versatility we have. We can play a lot of guys at a lot of different positions.
• D.J. Funderburk and Wyatt Walker have become very reliable for us on the rebounding end, which I know was a concern for a lot of folks coming into the season. They’ve really gotten better.
• I love our depth, communication, and how we play together. It’s a lot better right now than it was at the beginning.
• I’m excited man, that guy (Jericole Hellems) is a bucket. He scores the ball. If I can get him to ever pass, I would be a heck of a coach. He is playing very good basketball and is a talented freshman. We knew coming in that he would only get better. He is the one guy on my team that I can tell you can score the ball inside and out. He is starting to finish around the basket. When you look at the last 3 games, he has led us in deflections, which is great.
• Markell Johnson was low energy. When you are low energy, you aren’t going to play for me. He didn’t play today because I thought his energy was really low and I have too many guys that work extremely hard.’
  • I love him. He’s a heck of a player, and he’s going to be very good. I’m not mad at him. For me, it’s not about the guy that scores the most points, but the guy who plays the hardest. I want more energy from him moving forward, especially on the defensive end.
• I am happy about my team. Certainly we have a lot of things to work on moving forward, just like everyone else. I am proud of these guys.
• When we got back to practice on December 26th, it was an awful practice…probably like everyone else around the country, because they’d been out 3.5 days. I was miserable for 12 to 14 hours before I started calling my colleagues in the business. They said that they had bad practices too, and I was okay with it then.